HIBAPRESS – Berkane Province
Despite the clarity of the laws and the state's emphasis on combating illegal construction on more than one occasion, the Agbal commune, near the city of Ahfir in Berkane province, is still experiencing a dangerous urban chaos, expanding in secret and imposing a reality that threatens the safety of citizens, in the face of silence that raises astonishment and the absence of decisive intervention to stop this bleeding before it is too late.
During field inspections, it becomes clear that a number of douars are experiencing illegal construction activity, often taking place at night and during Saturdays and Sundays, in clear defiance of the law and an attempt to circumvent monitoring, including the douar of Mzaga, the douar of Aissawa, and the douar of Jaran and Aichoun, in addition to other areas that only need a short tour to discover the extent of the existing violations. The most dangerous thing in this scene is not only the construction of buildings without permits or respect for safety standards, but the normalization of this situation as if it were a reality, at a time when the authorities are supposed to be in a position of deterrence and protection, whether the officials are aware of what is happening or prefer to turn a blind eye, the result is the same: citizens are left to an unknown fate inside buildings that may turn into cement graves at any moment. What increases the seriousness of the situation is that the recent memory still retains tragic scenes, the most prominent of which was witnessed by the city of Fez last week, when the spread of illegal construction and the procrastination of the concerned parties led to a real humanitarian catastrophe, after two buildings collapsed on the heads of their residents, leaving deaths and shocking images that shook national public opinion, in a scenario that could have been avoided if the law had been respected in a timely manner. In the same context, public opinion recalls the case of the Bouskoura Palace, that huge project that was built with billions of centimes and was presented as an architectural masterpiece, before it was hit by demolition decisions without hesitation, in a clear message that the law recognizes only official documents, regardless of the value of the project or the influence of its owners, but this file left huge material and moral losses, and strongly raised questions about the existence of collaborators who sold the illusion to the citizens, and left the owners of the project to face the consequences alone. The most dangerous thing that can happen in such files is to allow citizens to build outside the law, whether through silence, leniency, or delusion, and then leave them later to face demolition decisions or potential disasters, for turning a blind eye here is no less dangerous than the act itself, but rather constitutes a heavy moral and legal responsibility. What is happening today in the Agbal commune cannot be considered mere isolated violations, but rather disturbing indicators of a defect that requires urgent and decisive intervention, to put an end to all forms of manipulation in a file that directly affects the right to life, and activates the principle of linking responsibility to accountability without selectivity or exception. The recent history has proven that leniency in illegal construction produces only tragedies, and that the silence of today may be translated into blood and tears tomorrow… Will those concerned move before the tragedy is repeated?
